Craig Deskinshttp://craigdeskins.com
Sound for Visual MediaThu, 28 Apr 2016 23:40:03 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.10Game Audio Interview Questionshttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1808
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1808#respondTue, 23 Sep 2014 21:41:46 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1808Sound Design interviews can be tough. I’ll just lay that out there. It’s way different than your screener/HR interviews, as the questions and conversations more directly relate to your technical and creative skills as a Sound Designer. I’ve participated in several interviews over the past couple years with both big and small companies, and I have tried compiling some of the questions that I have been asked so that the Sound Designers of the future may be better prepared than I was. Since a lot of positions are Sound Designer/Composer, I’ll include some questions related to music as well. I’ve also reached out to the game audio community to see what questions others have been asked. This will just be a list of questions that you can use to better prepare yourself for your interviews. Each company will be looking for different answers, so make sure you tailor your answers to the role and the company. Without further ado:

-Are you familiar/do you use (Wwise/Fmod)?
-Do you use any asset managers, for example Soundminer?
-Describe your layering process when you are creating an audio asset.
-What’s your DAW of choice?
-What’s your favorite sounding game and why?
-Describe your current audio production pipeline.
-Describe one of your recent recording sessions.
-What type of recording gear are you familiar with?
-If you were going on a field-recording trip to record ambience, what gear would you bring? (be specific)
-What’s the most complex system you’ve designed?
-What’s the most satisfying sound design or implementation moment of your career?
-Regarding all sound design (creation specifically), what have you done the most of, and what have you done the least of?
-A Producer comes to you and needs some UI sfx done but doesn’t know what he wants. What do you do?
-What’s your favorite genre of game? What are some challenges or considerations faced in designing audio for that genre?
-What can you do to give QA and understanding of how an audio system is expected to work?
-What is the number one sound generation tool that you use?
-What games are you playing right now?
-How did you start out in the industry?
-What’s your setup and/or favorite libraries?
-Do you know any scripting languages?
-What did you use to do (insert project name)?
-Do you compose music?
-What styles of music are you most comfortable composing?
-How does a ring modulator and a vocoder work?(Pretty much explain your knowledge of Digital Signal processing)
-How do you balance all of the things you want/ need to do with the limited time available?
-Whose work do you admire in the industry?
-Are you familiar working with version control software?(Perforce, TortoiseSVN)

I hope this list helps you with your interviews. If there’s one tip that I can give, it’s to be ready to back up your answers with either an example or some form of elaboration. It gives an impression that you might actually know what you’re talking about. I hope this list helps. I’ll add to it as I think of more, or if people suggest others. Best of luck in your future interviews!

]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=18080Status Update: What I’m Doinghttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1789
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1789#respondTue, 15 Jul 2014 17:55:03 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1789So I realized that since I’ve been employed, I have kind of dropped off the face of the earth in terms of personal website activity. I thought I would just give a brief update on what I have been up to in 2014.

Last Fall I graduated from Vancouver Film Schools Sound Design program. Since then I have worked on a variety of projects, both game and film. I just wrapped up the mix on a film I have been working on for a long time. It’s called Colliding Worlds by director Marc Adamson. Were hoping to get it to some festivals this year or next so I’ll post some updates on that in the future.

I have also been working at Cryptozoic Entertainment since last Winter. That had no Sound Designer when I arrived, so I’ve pretty much been building the role from the ground up. Were making the game Hex: Shards of Fate which some might be familiar with because of its Kickstarter success or even the more recent lawsuit with Wizards of the Coast which made some big headlines. Regardless, the game is awesome and were in closed beta right now. You can check it out at http://hextcg.com/

Last but not least, me and my friend Brandon Reader have been organizing a monthly LA Sound Designer Meetup. If your in the area and you like being social with other sound designers, check out our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/620583524694011/

Well that’s my update for now. I’ve been pretty busy this year and I hope that continues. Until next time!

-Craig

]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17890Creature Sound Design – Making of Ooze Creaturehttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1780
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1780#respondFri, 28 Feb 2014 18:46:03 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1780So I’ve had to make hundreds of creature sounds for the game I’m working on, and a lot of the source I have been using is just me making weird sounds into the microphone. In this video I was making some source sounds for a blob/ooze creature, and while I was making it I thought it would be pretty funny to video tape myself. I was using Dehumaniser as a filter on my voice. Although I record both dry and wet versions of the VO, I typically monitor the wet version, and you can see why! Perhaps I’ll create a video of how I used the recordings to make my blob creature as well. Enjoy!

-Craig

]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17800Haaz Effect Teaserhttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1764
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1764#respondSat, 24 Aug 2013 21:23:02 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1764A glimpse at my Wwise project, The Haaz Effect! You can also check out the other Haaz Effect videos to get a more in depth review of how my team and I created our sounds and utilized Wwise for our audio implementation. On my video game blog I have an in-depth analysis of how I created the ambiences, and gun sounds in Wwise so check those at as well!
]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17640Left for Dead 2 Intro Cinematic: Sound Redesignhttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1753
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1753#respondThu, 15 Aug 2013 22:51:01 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1753Here is my final project at Vancouver Film School, a Sound Re-design for the Left for Dead 2 Intro Cinematic.
]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17530Mission Speedway Recordingshttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1740
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1740#respondTue, 13 Aug 2013 01:11:47 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1740Here is a sample of some of my recordings at Mission Speedway. I got some really cool car sounds, including the sound of a dragster ripping past me! Check it out!

]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17400Blog Workshttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1721
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1721#respondTue, 13 Aug 2013 00:22:36 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1721So i was having some problems with my blog, it wasnt working… It is now though, so check out my posts to your hearts content!
]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17210Restinct Soundtrackhttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1712
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1712#respondMon, 12 Aug 2013 22:27:35 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1712Here is the complete soundtrack from a game I did the sound design and composition for, Restinct. www.restinct.com

]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17120Soundcloud Issueshttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1703
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1703#respondFri, 09 Aug 2013 20:07:35 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1703Having some issues with my Soundcloud files playing on my website. I’m working through the problems though, so hopefully it will be fixed soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!
]]>http://craigdeskins.com/?feed=rss2&p=17030Haaz Effect – Backgrounds Wwise Walkthroughhttp://craigdeskins.com/?p=1677
http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1677#respondThu, 08 Aug 2013 09:05:44 +0000http://craigdeskins.com/?p=1677New portfolio item! It could be used as a tutorial for making background ambiences in Wwise as well. In this video showcase, the backgrounds/ambiences of my game audio project, Haaz Effect, are displayed and explained in detail using Wwise, an interactive middleware tool.
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